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Gay people must have cooties

Otherwise how can you explain this story? The Toronto Star is reporting that the Canadian health care system bans most gay men from donating organs because of the alleged prevalence of HIV/AIDS within that community.

Now doctors are beginning to speak out. Dr. Philip Berger of Toronto says: "it's what the individual does in their sexual lives, whether gay or straight, (that) puts them at risk. To exclude bona fide donors because they've had sex with another man ... would exclude a lot of people who are no risk at all. Zero risk."

No s#%^, Sherlock! I thought Canadians were supposed to be so much more sophisticated than Americans with their shiny universal health care. This rule is so incredibly stupid, you would expect it to come from somewhere in the American South, where vilifying gays is as valued a tradition as apple pie (sorry, Brandeis).

I know that Canadian taste in music and fashion are usually a few years behind the United States, but you'd think the news that AIDS is not a gay man's disease would have reached our northern neighbors by now.

[Dr. Berger] adds that current HIV screening tests can confirm the infection-free status of donated organs rapidly and with virtual certainty.

The only risk would come from donors in the "so-called window period when they've been recently infected," Berger says, calling that an "infinitesimal" worry.

Talk about a harsh solution to a tiny problem. This policy just perpetuates stereotypes that have been proven scientifically untrue years ago. It just doesn't make any sense that a government that legalized gay marriage would adopt such a policy. Well at least Canada is fulfilling its mission of giving good reasons for Americans to gripe at them.

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on January 11, 2008 (boomark / email).